|
This Week!
Holiday Tree Lighting
Friday, Dec. 2
Rain/Snow Date: Dec. 3
* Time: 5:30- 7 p.m.
* Place: the Park
near Chapel St.
* Bring Your Mugs. Hot apple cider will be served
* Please bring a non-perishable food item for the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen
_________
| |
FYI: The Tree Lighting on the New haven Green is scheduled for Thurs., Dec. 1
|
|
HWSA Annual Meeting:
Wednesday, January 18 at Conte School
in the Library
Open to all. Watch for details. __________
Organizations HWSA collaborates with include:
* Downtown Wooster Square
_______________
|
|
|
Send Us Your E-Mail
We will send you updates about neighborhood activities.
QUICK LINKS
Contact Us
|
|
|
|
|
Historic Wooster Square Goes Online
We want to reach out to the extended neighborhood, so even if you received a hard copy of this newsletter, please share this version with friends and neighbors, and encourage them to send us their e-mails so they can get future newsletters, notices and updates about Wooster Square. E-Mail: Historic Wooster Square e-mail list.
Tip: if you have any trouble seeing the images, click on the link at the top of this e-mail..
|
|
39th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival Scheduled for April 15, 2012
Wooster Square became New Haven's first Historic District on June 11, 1970, and a year later a formal dedication was held in the Wooster Square Park. Three years after that, Jim Skerritt, who served as architectural consultant to the Historic District Study Committee (Deb Townsend, chair; Dick Mazan, Dick Hegel, Bob Nevins, and Luisa DeLauro) that did the groundwork for the designation, suggested planting 70 Yoshino cherry trees around the Square, echoing the famous spring festivity in Washington, D.C.
Committee members and others quickly raised the needed funds and the trees were planted. Every year since, our Cherry Blossom Festival has been held on a Sunday in April, rain or shine, buds or blossoms. This year's festival, on Sunday, April 15, is in the early planning stages. Festival Co-chairs Peter Webster and Charlie Murphy report that the Festival will once again include the free concerts on the open-air stage as well as great food and a variety of booths representing local groups. Volunteers will be needed, especially the day of the event. More information will soon be available on our website at www.historicwoostersquare.org.
|
|
Caring for the Park
Tropical Storm Irene left tree branches and damaged plants and shrubs all over the neighborhood. In Wooster Square Park, a huge oak tree was uprooted (see photo above). The city arranged for tree removal. Then the community, always actively engaged in park upkeep, stepped up.
Four neighborhood residents are "regulars." Each have adopted one quarter of the park to rake, prune and maintain flowerbeds: Alex Bragg, Hughes Place - daily, Peter Thompson, Chapel & Wooster Place - daily, Bill Buick, Court Street - weekends, and Peter Webster, Chapel & Wooster Place - weekends. Their work and the work of many other Wooster Square-area neighbors gathering downed branches quickly brought the park back. The photo below is the site of the uprooted tree replenished with new soil and re-seeded.
For more about the park, including the "liming" project and the collaboration with Yale's Urban Resources Initiative (URI), click here. |
|
Neighborhood School Revels in the Park
 On the Friday afternoon before the late October snow, a handful of Wooster Square residents were on hand to see a colorful array of young, enthusiastic, costumed creatures parading around and through the park. It was Elm City College Prep's annual Halloween Parade. The K-4 public charter school has an enrollment of nearly 300 with about 35 teachers, administrators and support staff. Principal Andrew Poole and Academic Dean Zack Vose both taught at the school before assuming their current positions.
The former St. Michael's School (1940-1993) on Greene Street in Wooster Square provides a central location for a student body that comes from all over the city. Nearly all are African American or Hispanic; girls outnumber boys somewhat. The school is hard to get into: about one out of eight applicants win a place. The majority qualify for free or reduced cost meals.
Read more about Elm City College Prep and its parent group, Achievement First. |
|
About Historic Wooster Square Association
Our members are homeowners, renters, students, businesses and others who have a vested interest in ensuring that Wooster Square continues to be a beautiful and peaceful place to live and work. WHAT WE DO * Initiate neighborhood beautification projects * Represent neighborhood interests at Zoning, Historic District,
Parks Department and other city agencies * Keep residents informed * Organize the Cherry Blossom Festival and other events * Lots more to enhance our neighborhood To join, send your check for $25 (homeowner/business) or $10 (renter/student) to: HWSA PO Box 9242 New Haven, CT 06511
Please include your name, address, e-mail, and phone number.
|
Greene Street house under contract!
Neighbors have watched with dismay as the historic home at 231 Greene Street fell into disrepair. Now, two New Haven attorneys, Frank Toro III and Albert Annunziate, plan to restore the building
and rent the apartments. |
 Caring for the Park, continued
Their work and the work of many other Wooster Square-area neighbors gathering downed branches quickly brought the park back. The photo below is the site of the uprooted tree replenished with new soil and re-seeded. Extraordinary Efforts For the past two years an Historic Wooster Square Association board member has initiated and organized the process of "liming" the park to improve the soil and help tree root development. This included getting proper certificates of insurance and city union clearance to use an outside contractor. Not in the city budget, the liming has been paid for by the Historic Wooster Square Association: $1,000 in 2010, and $800 in 2011. Urban Resources Initiative We have a knowledgeable "tree expert" on our Board. When Cordalie Benoit moved here in 2001, she noticed gaps in the cherry tree necklace surrounding Wooster Square; many of the trees were attenuated. Learning that the Parks Department of the City of New Haven had committed to plant three cherry trees a year, she turned to the Urban Resources Initiative (URI) at Yale's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies for assistance in making that a reality. URI helps groups throughout New Haven plant trees and beautify their neighborhoods. In our area, URI works with neighbors on Wooster Square, Russo Park and Lenzi Park. Cordalie located a map of Wooster Square that showed all the trees as of 1986 and checked it against the existing conditions. Many of the large forest trees were gone, and only a few had been replaced. Notations were also made about the conditions of the trees. This research has shaped the plans for the replacement trees. A community group now works to replace trees systematically, as needed. In 2003 a total of 14 trees, including both cherry and interior trees, were planted. They were selected, planted and are cared for by our neighborhood group. Clearly, it is committed neighbors working together that makes the Wooster Square area special. You Can Help The group that decides which trees to replace, what species to plant, and plants and cares for the trees is open; all are welcome to help. Please join us! For more information call Cordalie Benoit at 203-624-6737.
|
Elm City College Prep, continued
After completing fourth grade at Elm City College Prep Elementary School students can go on to Elm City College Preparatory Middle School on Dixwell Avenue for grades 5-8. Both schools are run by Achievement First, founded in New Haven in 1998 with the goal of proving that urban students can achieve at the same high levels as their suburban counterparts. Achievement First opened Amistad Academy in 1999 and Elm City College Prep in 2004. They aim to develop in every student the academic and character skills needed to succeed at selective colleges. Achievement First now has 20 schools in Bridgeport, Hartford, Brooklyn, New York, and New Haven. The former St. Michael's School (1940-1993) on Greene Street in Wooster Square provides a central location for a student body that comes from all over the city. A few live within walking distance, but about a third travel by private vehicle and two-thirds by bus. School staff (many live in the area) are acutely aware of the impact this has on a neighborhood of residences and nearby funeral homes and try to minimize any negative effects. Anyone who's around the park during weekday lunch times, weather permitting, cannot fail to be enlivened by the youthful exuberance and energy of these students in their khaki and navy uniforms. It's recess, it's fun and games, but it's also team building and consistent with the Achievement First core values of Respect, Enthusiasm, Achievement, Citizenship and Hard Work or "grit." School events include movie nights, parent reading nights, and, in the spring, a field day in the park. Friday is early dismissal day for the students, but for teachers it's profess- ional development time. The school is staffed from 7:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. every school day. As in all Achievement First schools, the classrooms are named after colleges (presumably only one for Brown University, the alma mater of three teachers), and classes are identified by the year that they are expected to graduate from college.
Take a look at the Achievement First Website: www.achievementfirst.org. It is positive, hopeful and inspiring, just like the students and staff at "our" Elm City College Prep.
|
|
Please share this newsletter with friends and neighbors, and encourage them to send us their e-mails so we can send them future newsletters, notices and updates about Wooster Square. E-Mail: Historic Wooster Square e-mail list.
|
|
|
